"ReVisions/SF": Drive-By Public Art Exhibit Featuring new Art Painted on Old Billboards to Make Bay Area Debut on Earth Day

Peter Schulberg, founder of the nonprofit Eco-LogicalART Gallery in L.A., is bringing his drive-by public art project to the San Francisco Bay Area for Earth Day. After discovering that used billboard vinyl is just thrown out, he found a way to recycle the vinyl, got artists to paint on the canvases, and began displaying the art on billboards. There will also be a gallery opening in San Francisco on Earth Day, and a kids' art contest.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 27, 2008 -- Recently seen more than 20 million times in Los Angeles, 10 original art works painted on recycled billboard vinyl head to the Bay Area to premiere just in time for Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, 2008.

Artist: Lee Ann Goya

Besides all of us in our cars, it's a kid on a bike, mother pushing a laundry cart, a truck driver, senior looking up out a bus window. For a moment, something unexpected is seen, experienced

Peter Schulberg, founder of the nonprofit Eco-LogicalART Gallery in L.A. (www.eco-la.org) announced that "ReVisions," his drive-by public art project, will be featured on billboards located throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Gallery show in San Francisco

Along with the huge 14' by 48' pieces, 24 stunning smaller works of art on vinyl will be on exhibit at the Thoreau Center for Sustainability (www.thoreau.org/san-francisco) located in the historic Presidio (Building 1014, at Lincoln Blvd. and Torney Ave.). The gallery show also premieres on Tuesday, April 22, 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and runs until May 21.

Contest for young artists

In addition to the "ReVisions/SF" billboard art and fine art presentation, Eco-LA will simultaneously launch "Gimme Shelter Art!" an eco-art event for Bay Area middle- and high school students. The open call to young Bay Area artists (ages 12-18) seeks submissions of works themed "The World As I See It/World As I Hope It To Be."

The project begins with an initial 11 x 17 inch vertical submission created in pencil, pastel, markers or paint, on paper or illustration board. Submissions and contact information (name, address, email and contact number) must be sent to the Eco-LA Gallery, 4829 West Pico Blvd., LA, CA, 90010, Attn: Gimme Shelter Art, and received no later than April 15, 2008.

At the gallery opening on Earth Day, the top 20 entries will be chosen by an art jury. Additionally, those attending the opening, which is open to the public, will choose five "fan favorites."

Eco-LA will provide the winners with recycled billboard canvases on which they will paint their art. The "Gimme Shelter Art!" works will then go on display in 25 Clear Channel bus shelters across the Bay Area by the first week of June. Each shelter is projected to be seen 15,000 times daily, or more than 400,000 by month's end.

About "Revisions/SF"

"ReVisions/SF" is a unique collaboration of Eco-LogicalART with CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor. The exhibit is made possible in part with a grant from the Vinyl Institute. With the art billboards positioned throughout the Bay Area, Schulberg calculates that by month's end, using actual traffic data, one in five residents may catch a view of the "renewable imagery" art.

The concept of new art on old billboards came to Schulberg in 2004--from out of the blue--literally. "I heard this thump and thought somebody had just fallen off the roof," he says. Moments later outside, looking at the bundle of old vinyl that had been thrown down from the billboard over his gallery, Schulberg inquired as to what happens with this material. At that moment, he learned that tons of billboard advertising is tossed into landfills monthly.

Schulberg, who paints and makes functional art from recovered materials, felt the waste cried out for a green solution. He also had a desire to turn the billboard vinyl and staid gallery world literally "inside-out." He began experimenting with applying paint to the vinyl and invented a stretching process so that the material could be used as canvases. He then placed notices on art newsgroups offering free canvases and exposure on the exterior of his gallery.

The sidewalk-to-skyline display of public art has always been one of Schulberg's goals. "Besides all of us in our cars, it's a kid on a bike, mother pushing a laundry cart, a truck driver, senior looking up out a bus window. For a moment, something unexpected is seen, experienced," he says. Schulberg says he is also excited that the project creates a new billboard paradigm; using what they do best - the number of views - but selling nothing more than the hope and vision of talented artists, and now students.

For more information and complete event rules, please visit www.eco-la.org.

###